For healthcare organizations in the gastroenterology space, finding the right key opinion leaders (KOLs) can be the difference between a breakthrough success and a missed opportunity.
Whether you’re developing cutting-edge treatments, launching new medical devices, or seeking expert insight into evolving clinical practices, collaborating with leading gastroenterologists can offer you critical expertise and credibility.
How do you identify a key opinion leader?
Finding the perfect KOL for your organization isn’t always easy. Just like searching for a needle in a haystack, looking for your next expert can be an exhaustive, time-consuming process.
Fortunately, you’re reading this blog, so you’re already one step closer to identifying the KOLs you’ve been looking for. Below, we’ll explore some helpful methods for finding relevant, valuable gastroenterology KOLs that align with your goals and needs.
Conferences and events
One of the best ways to find gastroenterology KOLs is to go where gastroenterology experts gather. Each year there are multiple summits, symposiums, and conferences where those at the forefront of gastroenterology research and clinical practice are invited to share their knowledge.
If your organization isn’t already attending these, then two major conferences you should visit are Digestive Disease Week and the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting. There, you can meet with experts, leaders, and influential figures who have their fingers on the pulse of emerging trends, practices, and technologies in gastroenterology.
Of course, your competitors will also be at these events, so it’s crucial you spend your time wisely. A good way to prioritize a short list of potential KOLs to partner with is to note down the speakers who regularly lead sessions or present often. These individuals are most likely to be engaged in ongoing research and may contribute fresh knowledge to the field, so they’re ideal candidates to prioritize to make the most of your conference engagements.
Professional association memberships
Similarly to the gastroenterology experts who present at major conferences, the KOLs who hold leadership roles in gastroenterological societies should be another major focus of your medical affairs outreach.
Like their conference counterparts, these folks are also deeply involved in shaping the future of the specialty, and holding a leadership position often involves participation in policymaking or developing clinical practice guidelines—both of which can be valuable attributes to your organization.
In addition, be on the lookout for KOLs recognized by their peers through awards or honors in their field. It brings an extra level of credibility to their partnership.
Scientific publications
Scientific publications are one of the most straightforward ways to evaluate a KOL’s contributions to their field. Gastroenterologists who regularly publish in high-impact journals (such as The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Gastroenterology, or Gut) demonstrate thought leadership and advanced expertise, and can certainly benefit your organization.
When scouring the web for articles, you can save time by focusing on citation metrics. The number of citations a KOL’s work receives is a key indicator of the influence their research has on the broader medical community. The more citations, the more likely the research has contributed to shaping clinical practices and treatment guidelines.
You should also consider whether the KOL is the lead author of the publication or a co-author. While both individuals offer valuable expertise and credibility, lead authorship suggests the KOL had a central role in the research of the paper and reflects a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
Clinical trials
No surprise here: you should look for gastroenterology KOLs leading or participating in clinical trials that are directly relevant to your products, treatments, or areas of focus. For example, if your organization is interested in developing pharmaceuticals for GI disorders, you’d want a KOL involved in trials that focus on biologics and their applications in gastroenterology.
Consider prioritizing experts who hold leadership roles in clinical trials (you may be noticing a pattern here), such as principal investigators. These individuals are responsible for evaluating new treatments, devices, and interventions, and hold substantial influence on treatment outcomes and industry practices.
If you’re looking for the most valuable KOLs, then those who have been in clinical trials that led to market authorization or drug approval are among the best. Knowing how difficult and expensive it can be for a life sciences company to bring a new treatment or device to market, these KOLs bring invaluable expertise in navigating the compliance and regulatory landscape.
Social media
Today’s KOLs are not just limited to traditional academic platforms. Many are active on social media platforms like X, LinkedIn, or even YouTube, where they engage with other professionals, share research updates, and contribute to medical discussions. A KOL with a strong social media presence or a digital opinion leader (DOL) can offer additional reach and influence, particularly for public health campaigns or product awareness.
To cut through the noise (and cat pictures) on the Internet, you should look for DOLs or KOLs who use their social media influence to discuss new developments in gastroenterology, patient care, or medical education. Their ability to communicate effectively in the digital space can amplify your organization’s educational efforts or advocacy work. And KOLs with a large, engaged following may be particularly valuable if your organization needs to connect with a broader healthcare audience.
Claims data
Of course, when it comes to finding the most active GI physicians, specialists, or gastroenterology physician groups, there’s probably no better method than looking at medical and prescription claims data.
With this data, you can gain a comprehensive view of the entire gastroenterology landscape. You should look for insights into diagnosis and gastroenterology procedure volumes, geographic data on where clinical activity took place, the patients being served, and more.
The Atlas All-Payor Claims dataset can help you get a clear picture of the market and identify the KOLs and rising stars that could benefit from your device, drug, or software.
Discover gastroenterology KOLs using expert data
Ultimately, finding the right gastroenterology KOLs can be an involved process. Any of the methods we discussed above can help you identify the most valuable KOLs faster, but ideally, you want to use multiple methods to maximize your chances.
Fortunately, you can streamline the search for experts with Monocl ExpertInsight, which offers access to more than 15 million experts around the world, and powerful search functionality to make finding KOLs that align with your organization’s goals a breeze.
No matter what kind of specialist you are looking for, our Monocl Expert Suite can help you identify and strategically engage with scientific and clinical experts from around the world. Book a demo with our team today to see how our Monocl products can boost your business.
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